General Cable Corporation

Walter F Thompson

Dennis M Redo

Thomas J Dover

This invention is a wire and transport system for a communication cable manufacturing facility. Bobbins wound with insulated wire roll down a bobbin track from a location where the wires are drawn and covered with a layer of insulation. A number of full bobbins accumulate on the track, and they are transferred to an elevator that delivers them to a multi-layer inventory storage rack. Final alignment of the elevator with the tracks and compartments of the inventory storage rack is under the control of electronic apparatus; but the positioning of the elevator in the vicinity of the selected track or storage compartment is controlled by an operator who rides on a carriage on which the elevator shaft is mounted.

Bobbin transporting and storage system

This invention receives paired bobbins from a pairing machine, stores the various bobbins of a given color coding in separate compartments of a rack, and selectively discharges bobbins to an elevator in accordance with the demand from a cabling machine. The elevator extends for the length of the rack and receives the desired bobbins with the color coded pairs called for by remote control from the cabling machine. The compartments of the storage racks slope in a direction that cause bobbins to roll from the rack by gravity on to the elevator; and the elevator slopes to discharge bobbins by gravity to a floor conveyor that carries them to the cabling machine.

Conductor supply system for communication cable making apparatus

This invention conveys full and empty bobbins between different locations in a manufacturing facility for making communication cables. Most of the manual handling of the bobbins is eliminated by having a closed loop conveyor on to which bobbins are loaded and from which bobbins are ejected at selected locations; and the invention provides lift members for automatically spacing the bobbins on the conveyor at a location between a loading station and the next ejector. The spacing is accomplished while the conveyor is in continuous motion.

Bobbin spacer for conveyor system

This flyer bow is for a machine used for twisting together communication cable wires to make conductor pairs, or twisting together large numbers of wires. The bow has a recess into which the twisted wires can nest and be held by centrifugal force in a position away from the windage caused by the rapid rotation of the bow in an orbital path. This prevents a loop from forming in the twisted wires as sometimes occurs in machines where windage overcomes the centrifugal force and wire tension. This invention permits operation of twisting machines with lower wire tension.

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Somerville, NJ, United States of America

Walter F Thompson